Best point at which to close secured card?

Anonymous · ‎02-26-2018

I have a payoff on my Capital One secured Platinum scheduled for the 17th of next month, after which I'm planning to close it out so I can recover the deposit to apply to other debts/expenses, since I really don't need the card anymore now that I have several very good ones. However, I'm not sure at which the best point would be to close it. It's currently my oldest CC (nearly 2 years and 2 months), with the next oldest one, my Amazon Store Card, being 1 year and 3 months, so I want to be careful about over-dinging my AAoA. I do have my old student loan dating back to 1994 so that would work in my favor. Also, my assumption is that the best time to close the card would be after the statement cuts, which would be something like 3-4 days after the payment due date for Capital One cards, is that about right?

HeavenOhio · ‎02-26-2018

Capital One statements cut three days after the due date.

It's always best to close a card when the balance is zero. If a card isn't going to unsecure, I wouldn't worry a lot about account age stats. Once the card falls off of your report, you have a pile of other cards to pick up the slack.

Anonymous · ‎02-26-2018

A credit card stays on your report 10 years after closing. So you will get the benefit for 10 more years anyway. By then you other accounts should be close to that age anyway. I would close it soon as you pay it off.

Anonymous · ‎02-26-2018

@HeavenOhiowrote:
Capital One statements cut three days after the due date.

It's always best to close a card when the balance is zero. If a card isn't going to unsecure, I wouldn't worry a lot about account age stats. Once the card falls off of your report, you have a pile of other cards to pick up the slack.

Yes - since this card was obtained at the end of 2015, it seems to have been activated before Cap 1 began making secured cards eligible for unsecuring so it's not eligible, if you followed that. Anyway, I haven't used it in a while. My payment date falls on the 17th (Saturday) so once the balance falls to zero it should be ready to close out by the 21st.

Anonymous · ‎02-28-2018

I lowered the credit limit (and thus got most of my deposit back) from $2000 to $250 on my SDFCU secured card instead of just closing it. Like you, I was concerned about dinging my AAoA. Maybe an option to consider?

Anonymous · ‎03-01-2018

@Anonymouswrote:
I lowered the credit limit (and thus got most of my deposit back) from $2000 to $250 on my SDFCU secured card instead of just closing it. Like you, I was concerned about dinging my AAoA. Maybe an option to consider?

For this card, there wouldn't really be any point in doing so, since the credit limit is $951 - by far the smallest of any of my lines. There was an auto-CLI back in June 2016, but it's been static since then (as usually is the case with Cap One secured cards). As others have said, closing it probably won't ding the AAoA that much, and with such a small limit it won't really affect overall utilization, particularly since I'm in the middle of a paydown/payoff of my outstanding balances (and with luck I may get a CLI on one or more of my other cards this month that would more than make up for closing this line).